Aristotle’s Aporia and the Thought that looks at Nothing

Abstract

Contradiction as pure contradiction – that is, as the pure appearing of thesis that is, at the same time, the appearing of antithesis –, is something that cannot exist. This is one of the greatest Aristotelian themes for which it is not only the contradictory content that is impossible (i.e. non‐existent), but also the conviction that the contradictory content exists. Emanuele Severino maintains that nihilism represents the soul of Western civilization and defines nihilism as the belief that the being is nothing, a belief that, given the Aristotelian theorem of the impossibility of selfcontradiction, could not exist. The present paper intends to show the necessity that the great Aristotelian thesis concerning the impossibility of the existence of madness, should be rethought at a higher level, according to the assertions of Severino. Then we will see how everything relates to the theme of “nothingness” and the thought that contradicts itself as a thought that thinks the nothingness.